The Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an AFT affiliate, achieved a major concession from the university administration that had been fighting for eight years its right to have a union. Following a day-long sit-in and occupation of the administration building on March 13, the University agreed to meet with GEO and come to an agreement on who would be eligible to vote in a union election. The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board can now schedule an election for more than 2,000 graduate employees. GEO filed for the election with the IELRB in 1996.

This is a win for the graduate employee unionization movement. After eight long years of opposition by the University that included court battles, legislative fights and campus protests, the graduate employees at the University of Illinois have achieved victory. The state's education labor board can now schedule an election for the university's graduate employees.

This should not have been such a long battle. The National Labor Relations Board has declared that graduate employees in the private sector are workers. AFT has represented graduate employees for more than three decades at other Big Ten schools including the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin. Without question, universities like U of I work because graduate employees work.

The university's agreement on graduate employee collective bargaining is a testament to the hard work of unionists on campus and their allies in the community. In recent days the university has bargained with graduate employees in good faith. We hope this spirit of cooperation will continue through the election and at the bargaining table.

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